HMD in talks with parts companies for India operations

Barcelona: HMD Global, the Finnish maker of Nokia mobile phones, is in active talks with global component makers for local manufacturing in India to drive costs down as the tax holiday on key parts under the phased manufacturing programme (PMP) nears its end.

The firm may also join hands with a new contract manufacturer to increase production capacity in India, its CEO Florian Seiche told ET on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress.

HMD Global currently manufactures its devices through Foxconn in India.

India has the potential to become a manufacturing hub for the company for other countries, said Seiche. “We have the vision to bring component ecosystem to India. The focus now is to really fully utilise the Indian ecosystem capability to source local technology and components. We are in active discussions with our partners,” he said.

The company’s country head for India, Ajey Mehta, said the plan is to finalise an agreement to this effect as soon as possible.

Seiche said, “India is still a key strategic market and single largest market globally because the opportunity is very big and still offers a lot of room to grow.” He said the brand will now aggressively focus on the online channel while continuing its focus on the offline channel, which comprises 500 distributors in the country.

(The reporter is in Barcelona to cover the Mobile World Congress 2019 on the invitation of Huawei)